Cancer Symptoms

The symptoms I experienced appeared gradually over the course of several months in the following order: firmness akin to inflammation, red splotchiness in a different location, red orange-peel-like skin in a second location, raised red rash in a third location, and nipple inversion. I never experience heat, itchiness, or pain, although these are common symptoms. Also, I was lactating as my symptoms were developing, greatly confounding and delaying my diagnosis. If you have these symptoms and they are NOT relieved by a course of antibiotics, demand a biopsy. My inflammatory breast cancer was only discovered after I found a surgeon who was concerned enough to do a biopsy.

My sysmptoms were that of Ovarian Cancer. Upon surgery a tumor was found in the uterus. Having had a lifetime of issues with my uterus and fertility issues, things not feeling quite right or workong right were 'normal' for me. 20 years prior to my cancer diagnosis I was diagnosed with Intra Uterine Synechea (Ashermans Syndrome. This is where the lining of my uterus was covered in adhesions (scar tissue) and would not shed. This is usually caused by trauma to the uterus such as multiple miscarrages or abortions, none of which I had ever had. I had several D&C's and Operative Hysteroscopies to cut away at the adhesions over the course of several years. My gyn/oncologist could not say if the medical history or three years of fertility treatments did or didn't play a role in my cancers.

They warning signs were vague if looked at them indivdually which is what I did, but there were many and in hindsight I should have put them all together. Let me state that I had stopped fertility treatmenmts in January 2004, 11 months prior to my diagnosis in November 2004 at the age of 42. In January 2004 I had my last internal and external sonongram to measure uterine lining & ovary activity and there was no sign of any tumors. Durining my TAH/BSO debulking surgery 3 tumors were removed. One the size of a human head, one the size of a grapfruit and one completely filled the uterus. About 2 months prior to my diagnosis. I experienced some horrible low abdominal cramping. Due to other long standing gyn issues I no longer menstruated through I did occasionally ovulate so I thought it was bad cramps. I had really bad back pain but again I expereinced lower back pain on and off for many years. I am a big girl what you might call reubenesque, but I have a shape, a noticable waist, body in proportion. Even being a big girl I did enough physical activity to not get out of breathe easily and that was happening. I also started to "loose" my waist line the way a pregnant woman does and my abdomen was getting bigger yet at the same time I simply could not eat at all and my abdomin was hard and my stomach was physically painful. What I learned at my disgnosis was that I had ascites which is free floating fluid in the abdomen & it was putting pressure on all my organs specifically my stomach and my lungs, not enabling them to expand and contract the way they needed to which caused pain. By the time I was diagnosed I looked like I was 5 or 6 months pregnant. Nothing fit. I was constantly urinating, or had the urge to and nothing happened. I also experienced constipation & diarrhea within the same day on a daily basis for about 2 weeks. This ended up being a result of my tumors putting pressure on my organs as they grew. When I did mange to get a little food down I expereinced horrible indigestion. It was the GI issues that finally had me go to the doctor.

I first noticed the tuck after losing about 45-50 pounds through diet and exercise. It was maybe about 3/4" long and looked a bit like tiny elves had stitched a "seam" along the inside of my breast just under my left nipple. The tuck didn't hurt and didn't really bother me all that much until I noticed that whenever I raised my left arm, my breast would "crumple" in a bit. That seemed more disturbing to me.

Since I'm a journalist, I first decided to check around online to see if I could find anything that described what I was seeing. I went to a few sites like the American Cancer Society and WebMD and Komen to read about the warning signs of breast cancer and while most of them mentioned dimples, none of them mentioned tucks or dents or tethering, which is what seemed to be going on. All the sites did encourage women to go to their doctor if they noticed *any* change in their breast, however, so after about two weeks of mulling (and hiding my head in the sand), I decided I'd better get it checked out.

When my ob/gyn examined me, she said she could feel something in there but said it didn't feel cancerous. She thought it was most likely a cyst. Since I was due for my annual mammogram, though, she said she wanted me to get a diagnostic mamm and ultrasound. I have dense breast tissue so it was the ultrasound (not the mammogram) that found the three masses in my breasts, two on the left side (one corresponding to the tuck and one above the nipple) and another on my right breast. During my needle biopsy the following week, another mass was discovered within my right breast. I figured if nothing else, at least I was symmetrical.